Yeah, I prefer just close friend. Feelings around friendship in modern culture seem to have been dulled down by the concept of "facebook friend" or "twitter follower" or whatever. There's lots of levels to friendship and I'm fine with there only being one word to encompass it all to avoid all the extra terminology that all seem to have romantic equivalents. I just get annoyed by the looks people give me when I say I'm happiest with friends and family only and they just say "why would you just want to have friends?" Like, excuse you, what is so trivial about friendship? Even if it's odd to verbally express affection for one's friends, I am fine keeping it to myself. I believe they feel it in my actions which is enough.